The forest of change
by KageNoYoko
Summary: They say an ancient legend resides in the forest of Gensokyo. When one little girl stumbles across this legend while disobeying her aunt, a villain from a time long passed will come to realize how much has changed in her absence.


Her aunt had always told her not to venture into the nearby forest, especially when night fell, because there were dangerous creatures that would eat up bad little girls like her for not listening to their parents or guardians.

She didn't know what a guardian was, but she had a feeling it was someone like her aunt, who looked out for her safety, and even the safety of the nice people that sometimes came to visit them. She never talked to these people, they always felt sort of weird to her, and they were always giving her this look, like she was making them sad with her very presence.

But on this night, the first full moon of the month, she had felt something calling out to her in the forest, and she just couldn't resist going to explore. Waiting until she heard her aunt retire for the night, she quickly got changed into the outfit that always had people giving her nice compliments, and made her aunt smile, before sneaking out into the backyard, and climbing through a bush into the forest beyond.

That had to have been hours ago, because now she didn't know which way she had come from, or which way to go to get back home. She couldn't even see Ms. Moon anymore, since the trees were so tall and thick that they blotted out the night sky from view, refusing to let her see her favourite time of the day.

It was beginning to feel hopeless for the young girl, and she could feel her eyes filling up with tears, as she regretted wandering into the forest, and disobeying her aunt.

Beginning to run through the same-looking trees, tears fell from the girl's eyes as she hoped against hope of finding her way out of the forest, her, pretty dress catching on branches, and picking up leaves and sticks in her long hair.

A loud squawk escaped from her lips as she suddenly found the ground disappear from underneath her, and hit the ground with a cry, even more tears coming to her eyes as she felt her knee beginning to hurt.

Managing to get up into a sitting position, the girl brought her hands up to her eyes in a futile attempt at wiping her tears away, as more came unbidden, unaware of what she had stumbled across, as the moonlight shone in through a small break in the trees around her.

Something prickled in the back of her mind, but she paid it no attention as she continued to sob in absolutely hopelessness, thoughts of never seeing her aunt again breaking her young heart.

"Oh my, but you children really shouldn't be wandering the forest at night. What are your elders teaching kids these days," A smooth, silky voice commented from behind the youth, startling her.

Turning and wiping her eyes, the girl looked up and found a green-haired woman standing there patiently, obviously waiting out the girl's impromptu breakdown. Clearing her eyes, the girl asked a question in a small voice, with only a hiccup interrupting her, "W-who are you?"

The woman's grin threatened to break her face in half as she kneeled down in front of the youth, and folded her arms over each other, before offering an answer, "I am the guardian of this forest, who might you be, little one?"

Hiccupping again, the girl answered quietly, "Renko Hakurei." She continued wiping her deep golden eyes, as the green-haired guardian mused over her words.

"Really, a Hakurei?" The woman mumbled, "I don't remember any Hakurei having...oh it doesn't matter."

"And what is a slip of a girl like you doing in my big, bad forest in the middle of the night little one? Shouldn't you be home, tucked up in your warm bed, with a kiss from your mommy?" The woman taunted.

"I don't have a mommy," The girl replied bluntly, causing the woman to flinch, "it's always been only me and my aunt."

Regaining her composure quickly, receiving a giggle from the previously distraught little girl, the green-haired woman took Renko's hand, and began to lead her back the way she had come, "Well c'mon then, I had better return you to your wayward aunt, before she tears down my dear forest."

Usually she wouldn't talk to strangers like this woman, as her aunt had always told her appearances can be deceiving in Gensokyo, and to be wary of everyone she didn't know, but for some reason, Renko felt like she could trust this one. So, instead of pulling her hand away and running off, the girl gave the woman a brilliant, heart-warming smile, and proclaimed she, "lead the way, guardian-sama!"

The chuckle she received in reply warmed her heart, and confirmed that she could trust this woman.

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After walking for what had felt like hours, the two girls finally noticed the trees beginning to thin out, and a slightly worn dirt path that Renko recognized immediately.

"Hmm, so you do live here, tell me dear, what is the name of this elusive 'aunt' of yours?" The green-haired woman asked, still keeping a firm hold on the younger girl's tiny hand in order to prevent her from running off and possibly becoming lost again.

The girl began to reply just as they broke through the trees, and stepped out into the backyard of one of the most important buildings in Gensokyo, where an elderly Shrine maiden stood, looking highly annoyed, "Her name is..."

The elderly woman's eyes shot up in recognition at the pair, and then narrowed into slits as she caught sight of the green-hair, "Madam Mima, step away from my niece now, or so help me I'll exterminate you, just like I did back in the day!"

"Reimu Hakurei, hah, oh how the mighty have fallen," Mima taunted, getting a good look at the girl she had once known at another time, now well into her elder years, before looking down at the girl she had been leading through the forest, "I think one of your little lambs ended up wandering into my territory, you should be lucky none of the wild Youkai stumbled across her."

"I'll only warn you one more time Mima, step away from my niece!" The woman ordered with steel in her tone, flicking her wrist idly as a handful of Ofuda appeared between her clenched fingers as a show of strength. This only seemed to amuse the vengeful spirit, as she began laughing, while releasing the young girl's hand and putting her hands on the girl's back, gently nudging her back towards her aunt.

"Oh that fire in your eyes is just like when you were a kiddie Reimu! So much determination, so much spunk," Mima complimented, but went ignored as the shrine maiden sunk to her knees in order to check over her niece, to make sure the spirit hadn't done anything to her.

"Auntie, stoppit," The girl whined as her aunt worked her over, double checking for something the child was unaware of until she was finally satisfied. Nodding her head twice to confirm that the girl was okay, the aged woman smacked the child over the head, receiving a pained squeak from Renko.

"I told you not to go into the forest behind the shrine, and you deliberately ignored my warnings. You should be thankful that's all you're getting off with," Reimu snapped, offering no sympathy for the girl as she rose back to her feet with some effort.

"So now what will it be, elderly shrine maiden of paradise?" Mima taunted, "Shall we have a nostalgic duel for old-times sake, or shall I simply scamper off and use my time in order to harass the locals a little before I inevitably return to my eternal sleep?"

"I could have you sealed before you even turned your back Mima, we both know that," Reimu threatened, as she began ushering her niece back towards the shrine, having to bite her cheek to avoid smiling as Renko let out an adorable yawn, her little adventure having obviously tuckered her out.

"That you could, in your prime maybe," Mima replied in a deadpan, "But perhaps I'll spare your old bones, and leave you to deal with the little one, while I go and harass my former apprentice," The green-haired woman didn't catch the way the shrine maiden's eyes softened, and the hurt that flittered across her face for a moment, "Maybe I'll even try and find that little dove she told me about the last time she came to visit."

"Mima," Reimu said, gaining the vengeful spirits attention with how hollow her tone suddenly sounded, "I think we need to talk for a bit, after I get Renko back to bed."

And suddenly Mima felt a sinking feeling in her nonexistent gut.

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The two women sat across from each other on the Tatami mat in the main tea room of the shrine. Mima was lying back, staring up at the ceiling, while Reimu was nursing a cup of tea, staring intently into the dark liquid, lost in thought.

Neither could really come to terms with what had been discussed, and Mima was still fighting with disbelief, hiding it by distracting herself, knowing that as soon as she looked at her former arch-nemesis, all of the questions would burst out. She didn't know if she wanted the answers, but went ahead and asked anyways, "How?"

"How what?" Reimu replied, never looking up from her tea. "How did your former apprentice and Shinki's progeny disappear? How did Renko end up happening? How has everything in Gensokyo been spiralling out of my control as I've done my best to teach a magician's daughter all I know about being a shrine maiden, when I know that as soon as she's of age, she'll leave to go and find her real parents?"

Mima winced at the angry tone, and for once could admit she felt fearful of inciting the shrine maiden's rage further, but she needed to know these things, "Start with how the midget came to be, we'll work our way up to the harsher stuff."

Reimu bit her lip for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts and figure out how to explain this best tot he vengeful spirit, before finally breaking the silence, "Magic."

"Yeah, I should have figured," Mima muttered, "Two of the five great magicians in Gensokyo, they would have found a way, regardless of gender, of what other people would think, regardless of pretty much everything."

"They were happy together," Reimu mumbled out, and Mima nodded in understanding.

"Okay, what do you know about the disappearance of those two then?" Mima tried asking next, but received a hollow laugh from the shrine maiden, "Not much I take it?" 

"We had Yukari, Ran, Patchy, Byakuren, and even Ellen and Rinnosuke look into the crater that had formerly been their house, but none of them could come up with any evidence of what went wrong," Reimu explained. "The only thing we could assume was that one of Marisa's highly volatile mixtures was ruptured, and caused an unexpected reaction when it went off, chaining the explosion of that girl's other mixtures. All of Gensokyo heard the explosion, and we were all off in a rush to the forest in a snap."

"But Renko was okay," Mima pointed out, "If she's their daughter, then she must have been inside the house when Marisa's concoction went off."

"That's the strangest thing," the shrine maiden admitted, "Renko hadn't been born yet."

"W-what?" Mima choked out, sitting up and staring right at the red-white in shock.

"Marisa came to me with the news she was pregnant, and that Alice was the "father," Reimu explained with air quotes, "when the explosion happened, Marisa was only into her seventh month, but in the smoking crater of the former Ordinary magician's house was a baby girl with a tuft of bright blonde hair, wrapped in a cloth of the finest blue fabric you've ever seen, with only a small stuffed doll laying beside her, that looked suspiciously like one of Alice's dolls."

"And you didn't think it might have been Marisa and Alice, affected by the mixtures that went off?" Mima suggested hotly, but deflated when Reimu shook her head, "We thought of that first, but both Yukari and Patchy confirmed this was their child."

Leaning back and supporting her weight with her hands, Mima thought of something else, "When she introduced herself to me, she used your last name, Hakurei. You did tell her about her heritage, right?"

"What do you take me for?" Reimu asked, but held up a hand to stop the ghost before she went off, catching the smirk on her face before answering, "Once she got old enough to understand, I took her aside and explained that I wasn't her mother, and that her real parents were great heroes, but had gone missing a long time ago after a bad thing happened," Reimu explained with a haunted look in her eye, "I think she can sense it's not the whole truth, but understands why I'm withholding information from her. She's as smart as her parents, but seemingly didn't get any of their bad habits. Except for..."

"Except for Marisa's adventurous spirits, and complete disregard for rules," Mima pointed out wryly, "It's amazing you got that girl to agree to the spell-card rules."

"I know," Reimu groaned, before changing topics, "Shinki comes to visit often, both to see her grandchild, and supply me with information regarding her search through the Multiverse."

"You have lady Shinki looking for them?" Mima asked incredulously. She remembered the great goddess very well, and a more eccentric woman the ghost had never met before.

"Yukari too," Reimu added, "We've been searching for a long time, and we've never lost hope that maybe Marisa managed to accidentally unlock the secret of crossing dimensions, and unwittingly dragged Alice along, but we can't be sure because no one can get any answers about what those potions that went off were supposed to do in the first place."

"So what about you then?" Mima asked changing the subject once more, "Never found a beau in order to carry on the Hakurei line, so you've just decided to begin training Marisa's kid to do it instead?"

"Renko isn't going to take over the Hakurei shrine when I pass on," Reimu stated bluntly, causing Mima to splutter, "And I had a girl, but she passed on to be with her deities on the other side."

"Oh, ouch," The spirit admitted, "So what's going to happen to the Hakurei Shrine, and the barrier then?"

"I have a child of my own, but she decided to become the maiden of her mother's shrine, instead of being the Miko of a godless shrine," Reimu explained, Mima thinking she could sense a bit of hurt in the woman's voice, "once I move on, the control of the border will be passed on to her, but the Hakurei line will die with me."

Mima's eyes widened in surprise. No more Hakurei? That's something the vengeful spirit never thought she would hear, and, considering her only goal in life had been to destroy the Hakurei line, to have her goal within her grasp was...less than satisfying.

"I'm not that beaten up over it," Reimu admitted, though Mima had the suspicion it was mostly for her own sake, "Sara is a good girl, just like her mother, and she's even better than I am at Danmaku, so I'm confident I'll be leaving Gensokyo in capable hands. Not to mention Yukari will be there to help out where she can."

"What about Renko?" Mima asked, and the shrine maiden shook her head.

"Like I said, I'm expecting her to go out in search of her parents once she's of age, and by then she'll be old enough to know everything that happened," the shrine maiden explained, "I've left all of the information we've gathered with Patchy, and I have her word that when Renko comes knocking she'll help her in any way she can."

"Seems like a tall order for a slip of a girl," Mima mused.

"Not unlike a certain shrine maiden who had the fate of an entire world thrown onto her shoulders at the age of ten, eh?" Reimu pointed out, causing the vengeful spirit to chuckle.

Groaning as she got back to her feet, Mima conjured a familiar blue conical hat, and placed it atop her green hair, before grinning over her shoulder at her former arch-enemy, "well, maybe we can make a difference with this one, eh Reimu-chan?"

"Mima?" Reimu asked, but the spirit had already stepped outside, waving over her shoulder to the shrine maiden as her form began to shimmer and disappear from the feet up.

"Once she gets older, have her come and seek the aid of a tired old witch in the forest," The vengeful spirit stated, "I think I might have one more adventure left in me, and I can't go on when I still owe one more favour to my dear apprentice."

Reimu gawked, open-mouthed for a moment as the woman from her childhood continued to disappear from view, but finally managed to regain her composure, and crossed her arms, "I don't know, is it really right for me to leave another poor girl to the care of that woman that terrorized me in my childhood?"

The Green-haired woman's cackling laughter echoed through the courtyard as the sun began to rise over the horizon, and the tip of the blue hat disappeared from view, with only a few more parting words, "I don't think you'll have a choice, Shrine Maiden of Paradise."

"But I look forward to playing Danmaku with you in the next life, once I get to see my apprentice one last time."

Reimu smiled as she stepped out onto the porch of the shrine, and eased herself down, so her legs could swing over the edge like she had as a young girl, with nothing better to do with her time. With her tea in hand, the Shrine maiden watched the sun rise, the warm light matching the bright smile on her face.

"I look forward to it, Madam."

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**Okay, so I can't be sure this counts as an OC story or not, since I made children for Touhou characters. I don't know, judge it at your own discretion, but I'm putting in an OC tag.**

**This was partially inspired by a picture I found on Danbooru, and I'm not going to say that this is the last we'll see of this universe. I may have an idea or two up my sleeve in the future, but since I'm focusing on another big project, this is all you'll be getting for now.**

**Hope ya'll enjoyed, Ja Ne!**


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